Certain people -- we'll call them automotive journalists for discretion's sake -- can get pretty riled up on parts bin sharing. If you buy the "premium" version of a vehicle and it has the same switchgear or interior panels as a "lesser" version from the corporate stable you might feel jipped, or at the very least mislead. This happens a lot between the various divisions of certain brands, and Ford isn't immune to it. The GT's interior features a wide array of original items (gauge cluster, toggle switches, steering wheel, seats, etc.), but several items also look like they could have been pulled from a Ford Focus...
In fact the steering column was pulled from a Ford Focus, and the window switches look like they came from a Mustang. However, the steering column both tilts and telescopes (ensuring comfort for a wide range of driver sizes) and the window switches work fine (though no one-touch action there). It would be great if the GT's interior was totally unique to the car, but it's probably unrealistic to expect that when a company like Ford builds an exotic. Color me moderately riled, at best.
Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief, Edmunds.com @ 6,129 miles
jerrywimer says:
04:49 AM, 11/ 8/06
It's far more than just journalists that see this and get riled up. But I'm not in that class of folks. So long as the shared parts are of good quality I could care less what other models up or down the line share them with my new vehicles. Maybe folks are looking at things backwards- perhaps the parts were designed for higher end vehicles but then used in far more inexpensive vehicles too in some cases. Even if the more expensive car comes out much later than the others, I choose to look at things in a the-glass-is-half-full rather than the-glass-is-half-empty way.
rennf says:
09:27 AM, 11/ 8/06
Nope, I'm with Karl on this one. This kind of stuff drives me nuts. Understand the financial merits, but people need to get more clever (think marketing smarts as opposed to book smarts) about how they share -- i.e. minimize the VISIBLE parts sharing.
jsc4321 says:
11:21 AM, 11/ 8/06
Well if you think of it this way, Toyota and Lexus share parts together too, as does Honda and Acura Yet no one complains about those cars because of the quality. Then again the GT does cost $150,000....
desmolicious says:
12:32 PM, 11/ 8/06
Yeah, but the Lexus/Infiniti/Acura brands only exist in the USA. Everywhere else on this planet they are called what they are - Toyotas, Nissans, Hondas...
jerrywimer says:
05:04 AM, 11/ 9/06
Uh, regardless of where else those brands exist, they are still marketed side by side here in the good ol' US of A. And one is marketed as an upscale product here. So parts sharing in that example is exactly the same thing Karl was talking about!
And I still see no problem with it so long as the parts are pleasing to look at (and fitting for the higher level vehicle). That a lower line vehicle also uses them doesn't make them suddenly inferior.
It's only when the parts are barely adequate in a lower line vehicle and then get used in a higher trim vehicle that I'd have an issue. This has happened in the past too, but is not so much the norm in more recent vehicles.